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'Pope Innocent III' (c.
1161 –
June 16,
1216), born 'Lotario de' Conti di Segni', was
pope from
January 8,
1198 until his death.
Biography
Early life and election to the Papacy
Lotario de' Conti di Segni was born in
Gavignano, near
Anagni. His father was Count Trasimund of
Segni and was a member of a famous house that produced nine popes, including
Pope Gregory IX (1227–1241),
Pope Alexander IV (1254–1261) and
Pope Innocent XIII (1721–1724). His uncle was
Pope Clement III (1187–1191), and his mother, Claricia, belonged to the noble Roman family of Scotti.
Lotario studied in
Rome,
Paris (
theology, under
Peter of Corbeil), and
Bologna (
canon law, under
Huguccio). The latter's moderate doctrine on the relationship between spiritual and lay authorities were a constant influence in the future work of Innocent. He was considered an intellectual and one of the greatest canon lawyers of his time.
After the death of
Pope Alexander III (1159–81), Lotario returned to Rome and held office during the short reigns of
Lucius III (1181–1185),
Urban III (1185–1187),
Gregory VIII (1187), and
Clement III (1187–1191, possibly a relative of the Segni), reaching the rank of
Cardinal Deacon through his uncle Pope Clement III. During the reign of
Pope Celestine III (1191–1198), a member of the House of
Orsini, who were enemies of his family, Lotario left Rome to live in Anagni. During this period he wrote a series of theological works, including ''On the Miserable Condition of Man'' and ''On the Mysteries of the Mass'', both showing the ascetic-liturgical inspiration animating him.
On
January 8,
1198, the day Celestine III was buried, Lotario was unanimously elected pope after only two ballots. His election was held in the ruins of the ancient
Septizodium, near the
Circus Maximus in Rome and is considered by some scholars as the first
conclave. He took the name of Innocent III. He was only thirty-seven years old at the time. He was ordained a priest on February 21 and consecrated bishop of Rome the following day.
Reassertion of Papal power
An energetic personality, throughout all his career as pope Innocent III sought to assert and extend the prestige and ''plenitudo potestatis'' (plenitude of power) of the papacy, following the path of the process started by
Gregory VII in the late 11th century, and which had diminished during the reign of his predecessors.
Even before his coronation, he thwarted the power of the aristocracy of Rome by obliging the
senators of the city to swear allegiance to the popes. The
Prefect of Rome, who reigned over the city as the
Emperor's representative, had to do the same. Innocent reigned in Rome with the support of the oligarchic class, until a popular uprising in 1203, backed by the
Orsinis, forced him to move to
Palestrina. He returned to the pacified city the following year.
On the foreign side, the throne of the
Holy Roman Empire had become vacant by the death of
Henry VI in 1197, and no successor had yet been elected. Innocent III took advantage of the confusion to lessen imperial (German) influence in Italy. The pope demanded the restoration to the Church of the
Romagna, the
March of Ancona, and the
Duchy of Spoleto from imperial vicar
Markward of Anweiler; he used papal troops to bring this about, but failed to regain Romagna. In a similar way, the
Duchies of
Spoleto,
Assisi and the
Sora were taken from the German
Conrad von Uerslingen. Innocent could not, however, regain the former possessions of
Mathilda of Canossa in Tuscany.
The pope also made use of the weakness of Henry's son, King
Frederick II of Sicily (who was only four years old), to reassert papal power in
Sicily. Taking advantage of the last will of Frederick's mother,
Constance of Sicily, which had named him as tutor of the young king, Innocent acknowledged Frederick as king only after the surrender of the privileges of the
Four Chapters, which
William I of Sicily had previously extorted from
Pope Adrian IV (1154–59). The Pope then invested the young Frederick II as King of
Sicily in November 1198. He also later induced Frederick II to marry the widow of King
Emeric of Hungary in 1209.
However, not all his temporal affairs were successful. When acting as the guardian to the young
Frederick II of Sicily he derailed much of the carefully constructed government created by the Norman kings. This reflects what Barraclough calls the "failure to consider the executive" — that is, the inability to exert sufficient temporal authority over governed areas.
Encroachment in Empire's affairs
After the death of the Holy Roman Emperor Henry VI in 1197, two princely parties had elected competing kings:
Philip of Swabia of the
Hohenstaufen family, and
Otto of Brunswick of the
Welf family. Since Philip had been excommunicated by Celestine III and not crowned in
Aachen, in 1201 the pope openly supported Otto; he threatened with
excommunication all those who refused to acknowledge him. By the decree ''Venerabilem'' in May 1202 Innocent III made clear to the German princes his view of the relationship between the Empire and the papacy (this decree was afterwards embodied in the ''
Corpus Juris Canonici''). The decree asserted the papal rights to decide whether a king is worthy of the imperial crown and to arbitrate or to pronounce in favour of one of the claimants in case of a double election, as was the current situation with the Empire. He argued this
bull on the grounds that the transition of the Roman Empire from
Byzantium to the Holy Roman Emperor had taken place only under papal blessing, and therefore all blessing, coronation, and investiture of the emperor was dependent upon the pope.
Philip, however, gained increasing steam at the expense of Otto, and in 1205 received a more regular coronation at Aachen from the
Archbishop of Cologne, Germany's main religious authority. Considering Otto the losing party, in 1207 Innocent III changed his mind and declared in favour of Philip, sending cardinals to Germany to induce Otto to renounce his claims to the throne. But Philip was murdered on
June 21,
1208 (probably by Otto's agents), and, at the
Diet of Frankfurt of
November 11,
1208, Otto was acknowledged as emperor. The pope invited him to Rome and the two met at
Viterbo, with Otto swearing to renounce to any claim to the Mathilda's heritage and the former
exarchate of Ravenna (Romagna). He was then crowned as Emperor Otto IV, in
St. Peter's Basilica, on
October 4,
1209.
Otto IV had also promised to leave the Church in possession of Spoleto and Ancona and to grant the freedom of ecclesiastical elections, unlimited right of appeal to the Pope, and the exclusive competency of the hierarchy in spiritual matters. He had also promised to assist in the destruction of
heresy (in what is known as the
stipulation of Neuss, a promise that he repeated at
Speyer in 1209). But soon after being crowned, Otto IV seized
Ancona, Spoleto, and other territories claimed by the Church, giving them to his vassals. He also invaded the Kingdom of Sicily. As a result, Otto IV was
excommunicated on
November 18,
1210.
At the
Diet of Nuremberg in September 1211, the pope convinced some imperial princes to renounce the excommunicated emperor and to elect
Frederick II of Sicily. Frederick II made the same promises as Otto IV had done; he was reelected by most of the princes on
December 5,
1212, and, his election being ratified by Innocent III, he was crowned at
Aachen on
July 12,
1215.
Feudal power over Europe
Innocent's personal strength and personality made him the most prominent political figure in Europe: he had King
John "Lackland" of England, younger brother of
Richard I (the "Lionheart"), declare himself vassal of the Church (1213); received the feudal homage of
Peter II of Aragon,
Ottokar I of Bohemia,
Alfonso IX of Leon and
Sancho I of Portugal; and forced
Philip II Augustus of France (1180–1223) to be reconciled with his wife, Ingeborg of Denmark. Philip II thereby became Innocent III's ally in the struggle over Otto IV. Otto allied himself with England (he was the nephew of King John) to fight Philip II Augustus, but he was defeated in the
Battle of Bouvines in what is now
Belgium, on
July 27,
1214. Thereafter Otto IV lost all influence and died on
May 19,
1218, leaving Frederick II the undisputed emperor. Innocent III played further roles in the politics of France,
Sweden,
Bulgaria,
Spain, and especially England.
In England, there was controversy over the appointment of
Stephen Langton as
Archbishop of Canterbury, a decision that had been made in Rome (without consultation) by Innocent himself and which was opposed by King John and by the majority of the monks of
Canterbury Cathedral. The king was eventually forced to acknowledge the pope as his feudal lord and accept Langton, after Innocent stirred up John's former enemy, the French king, to invade England. Innocent also declared the
Magna Carta invalid at King John's request, on the grounds that it had been obtained by force and that as John was the pope's feudal vassal he was unable to enter into binding contracts of this nature without papal permission. This papal tampering in the internal affairs of a sovereign state was to have significant consequences later in English history: at the time of the
Henrician Reformation in the early sixteenth century this case was cited by the king's men of law as evidence of unwarranted papal interference in English affairs and helped to bolster the popular case for casting off Rome.
Innocent intervened regularly in the affairs of
Sardinia, sometimes at the invitation of the local ''
giudicati'' and sometimes as part of his own agendum. At the beginning of his pontificate, he recognized the suzerainty of the
Archdiocese of Pisa over Sardinia. Innocent intervened in the wars between the
Giudicato of Cagliari and the
Giudicato of Logudoro to establish a peace and tried to sort out the accusations
William I of Cagliari and
Comita III of Torres levelled at one another. He ordered the island prelates to investigate the legality of the marriages of the ''giudici'' (probably to gather ammunition against them if necessary) and even called William and Comita to Rome, but the
Republic of Pisa, of which they were both citizens, refused to allow them to appear before a "foreign" tribunal. This sparked a conflict with Pisa. Innocent threatened to deprive the Pisan
Archbishop Ubaldo of his legatine rights on the basis that "he who abuses his power, deserves to lose his privilege." Innocent tried to extract an oath of homage from William to the Holy See, but the Pisan archbishop refused to absolve William from previous oaths to himself. Innocent also tried to verify the accusations made against Giusto, Archbishop of
Arborea, who had been removed from his see by Ubaldo and William, but failed to have him reinstated.
In 1202, when the
Archdiocese of Torres became vacant, Innocent appointed a member of his own ''curia'',
Biagio, archbishop to carry out his personal orders on the island. In 1203,
Barisone II of Gallura died, leaving his widow and heiress,
Elena, in the care of Innocent, who charged the other ''giudici'' with her protection and gave Biagio the job of finding her a suitable marriage. The pope tried to arrange a marriage with his relative Trasimondo, but Elena rebuffed this attempt and instead married a Pisan,
Lamberto Visconti. Innocent's policies in Sardinia were stiffly opposed and when he died the island was under Pisan hegemony.
Suppression of heresies and crusades
Innocent III was considered a vigorous opponent of heresy, and had campaigns to force the heretics to convert. Under his authority, measures were taken against alleged believers in the
Manichean heresy and under the leadership of
Simon de Montfort, against the Albigenses or
Cathars, in the
Albigensian Crusade (1209–29). The latter, strongly supported by Innocent, was one of the most controversial moves of the medieval church, being mostly directed against other Christians and soon turning into a mere conquest campaign by the northern French barons against the more tolerant
Midi. This was a prelude to the legitimization of the
Inquisition in 1233, wherein heresy was said to be punished for the spiritual good of the individual as well as for the preservation of the Church. The pope supported two new holy orders: the
Franciscans and the
Dominicans, as well as smaller ones like the
Holy Spirit Order.
Innocent III had also decreed the
Fourth Crusade in 1198, which was intended to recapture the
Holy Land. The pope directed his call towards the knights and nobles of Europe rather than to the kings; he wished that neither
Richard I of England (1189–99) nor Philip II of France, who were still engaged in war, nor especially his German enemies, should participate in the crusade. Innocent III's call was generally ignored until 1200, when a crusade was finally organized in
Champagne. The
Venetians then redirected it into the sacking of
Zadar (Zara) in 1202 and of
Constantinople in 1204. Innocent III was horrified by the attack on the Byzantines. Prior to the launching of the Crusade he had insisted that no Christian cities be attacked. He sharply denounced
Boniface of Montferrat, commander of the so-called "Fourth Crusade" (1202–04) for his actions:
:(quoted by Warren Carroll in ''The Glory of Christendom'')
Innocent III also summoned the
Fourth Lateran Council (12th ecumenical council), which opened on
11 November 1215. It decided on another crusade to the Holy Land (the
Fifth Crusade) and issued some seventy decrees. Among other things, it encouraged creating schools and holding clergy to a higher standard than the laity. It also required
Jews and
Muslims to wear distinctive clothing, making it a milestone and a precedent in the history of
anti-Semitism.
Death and legacy
The Council had set the beginning of the Fifth Crusade for 1217, under the direct leadership of the Church. After the Council, in the spring of 1216, Innocent moved to northern Italy in an attempt to reconcile the mariner cities of
Pisa and
Genoa, whose ships were necessary to new enterprise, but also to imbue them of more religious and commercial motivations.
Innocent III, however, died at
Perugia in July of that year, from one of his frequent attacks of fever, probably due to
malaria. He was buried in the cathedral there, where his body remained until
Pope Leo XIII had it transferred to the
Lateran in December 1890. Although the papal power over kings that Innocent III established would be short-lived, he sincerely attempted to turn theological principles into actual powers. Two of his
Latin works are still widely read: ''De Miseria Humanae Conditionis'', a tract on asceticism that Innocent III wrote before becoming pope, and ''De Sacro Altaris Mysterio'', which is a description and exegesis of the liturgy.
References
★
The Glory of Christendom, , Félix Jr., Lavergne, Christendom Press, 1993,
★
I papi - Storia e segreti, , Claudio, Rendina, Newton Compton, 1983,
★
The Medieval Papacy, , Geoffrey, Barraclough, Thames and Hudson, 1968,
★ Moore, John C. "
Pope Innocent III, Sardinia, and the Papal State." ''Speculum'', Vol. 62, No. 1. (Jan., 1987), pp 81–101.
External links
★
Find-A-Grave
★
Innocent III at the Catholic Encyclopedia
★
Adrian Fletcher’s Paradoxplace - Portrait (Subiaco) and Tomb (Lateran) of Innocent III
★
Innocent III's Opera Omnia
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